Johnson
striding irregularly along. He insisted on taking a boat, and sailing
into the Pot. We did so. He was stout, and wonderfully alert. The
Buchan-men all shewing their teeth, and speaking with that strange sharp
accent which distinguishes them, was to me a matter of curiosity. He was
not sensible of the difference of pronunciation in the South and North
of Scotland, which I wondered at.
As the entry into the _Buller_ is so narrow that oars cannot be used as
you go in, the method taken is, to row very hard when you come near it,
and give the boat such a rapidity of motion that it glides in. Dr.
Johnson observed what an effect this scene would have had, were we
entering into an unknown place. There are caves of considerable depth; I
think, one on each side. The boatmen had never entered either of them
far enough to know the size. Mr. Boyd told us that it is customary for
the company at Peterhead well, to make parties, and come and dine in one
of the caves here.
He told us, that, as Slains is at a considerable distance from Aberdeen,
Lord Errol, who has a very large family, resolved to have a surgeon of
his own. With this view he educated one of his tenant's sons, who is now
settled in a very neat house and farm just by, which we saw from the
road. By the salary which the earl allows him, and the practice which he
has had, he is in very easy circumstances.
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